Immigration reform has been a hot topic in recent US history. While President Trump worked hard to have a secure border wall built to stop the influx of illegal immigration, Joe Biden has virtually reversed all that hard work. Now we’re dealing with Biden’s crisis at the border. One of the most alarming things about the crisis is the number of unaccompanied children. Think about young children crossing the border without parents or guardians. There are some questions that come to mind immediately. Where are these kids from and how did they get here?
From “children in cages” to “kids in containers”
During the Trump administration, those on the left were quite fond of using the phrase “children in cages.” The media latched onto the phrase and used it repeatedly in an attempt to make President Trump’s immigration policies look bad. Now, with Biden’s border crisis, there are children living in what appear to be shipping containers. The number of children coming across the southern border without guardians is alarming. The photos and video from this immigrant detention center in Texas should shock everyone. Where are the parents and guardians? There is no legitimate reason that minors would leave their families of their own accord to cross into the United States. Something bad is happening here and it needs to stop immediately.
A child trafficker’s dream
As of March 15th, border facilities held over 4000 unaccompanied minors. The situation at the border offers up the perfect opportunity for an increase in child trafficking in the United States. As if the problem wasn’t bad enough before, now we have thousands of children who can potentially disappear without any record. These children may have been kidnapped or sold to human smugglers, known as “coyotes.” In most cases, there is no way to identify these kids which makes it virtually impossible to return them to their families. What’s the solution? Close the border. Without a market for human trafficking over the southern border, there is no longer a reason for people to smuggle children over.
There is no good solution when it comes to detaining migrant children. The only option is to prevent them from coming over the border in the first place. In most cases, these kids and teens are not making a choice to leave their homes and families. They are being taken or sold. Many of these kids will end up as victims of human trafficking. We need strict border control enforcement to prevent this from happening. Open borders make it much easier for traffickers to bring victims into the United States. We need to complete the border wall. The US also needs to enforce immigration laws to prevent unaccompanied minors from entering the country. Without a market to sell, the smugglers would have no reason to bring trafficking victims over. It’s not cruel or inhumane to keep these children out of the United States. But it is cruel and inhumane to allow them in knowing that many of them will end up being victims.
